Opener's Rebid
	The Opening Bid
	Index of Lessons

In this lesson, we will look at the various responses Opener's partner (the "Responder") might make to his opening bids. For the next few lessons, we are going to assume that the bidding is uncontested; that is, the opponents do not choose to bid anything other than "Pass".

Definition: Responder The partner of the player who makes the first bid in an auction; the Opener's partner.

When it is Responder's turn to bid, he should first consider what the Opener has told him about his (the Opener's) hand. Then, in light of that, he can describe his own hand to the Opener with the most descriptive bid possible. We will take a look at Responder's possible bids to each of possible Opening bids, taking the opening bids in turn, beginning with 1 and working our way up.

Responding to an Opening Bid of 1

An opening bid of 1 is conventional, simply describing a hand that has 17 or more HCP. Responder's bid may also be conventional or it may be natural.

Definition: Natural Bid Any bid made during an auction which actually suggests a final contract, and which names a level (1 through 7) and a proposed trump suit (or Notrump).

Over a 1 opening, Responder is required to tell his partner whether he has at least 9 HCP. If Responder has 8 HCP or less, he is required to bid 1 . It does not matter what his hand looks like; any hand of 8 HCP or less requires a 1 bid. If Responder has 9 HCP or more, he may not bid 1 ; he must bid anything else, and should choose the bid that best describes his hand- usually naming the his longest suit.

Here are some examples; in each case, Opener has bid 1 :

Q 10 9 8 7   Q 3 4   6 4   J 4 3 You have less than 9 points, so automatically bid 1

Q J 9 8 7   A J 4   J 5 4   9 8 You have 9 points, so bid your best suit. Bid 1

9 8 7   A 4 3   A J 10 8 7   9 8 You have 9 points, so bid your best suit. Your best suit is Diamonds, but bidding 1 would tell Opener you have less than 9 points. So bid 2

9 8 7 6   10 9 2   8 5 4 3   7 6 You have no points at all; even so, you are forced to bid 1

A J 5 4 2   A Q 7 6 5   5 4   10 You have 14 points, so bid your best suit. Follow the rule that when you have two suits of equal length you should bid the higher one first. Bid 1

The value of using a Strong Club system should now be apparent. If Responder bids anything other than the conventional 1 in response to a Strong Club opening, then both partners know that the partnership possesses at least 26 points, which is enough for game. Therefore, as soon as Responder bids anything other than 1 , the partnership is committed to bid at least game (3 , 4 , 4 , 5 or 5 ). Neither partner may pass until one of those games is reached.

Remember that for the games of 5 and 5 somewhat more than 26 points are usually required for game (29 or so on average). Because of this fact, whenever these lessons tell you that if you can add to 26 points between you and your partner that you should not stop bidding until a game is reached, this admonition will not apply if it becomes apparent that the only possible trump suits are either Clubs or Diamonds. As soon as this becomes apparent, be sure to re-evaluate your point count. If you cannot add to 29 points, then you are allowed (and encouraged) to stop below game.

Reponding to the Opening Bids of 1 , 1 , 1 and 2

We are going to look at the responses to all of these bids together, since, with some minor differences, they are all handled the same way.

General

With his bid, Opener has limited his hand, because each of these four bids are "limit" bids.

Definition: Limit Bid A limit bid is any bid that limits the bidder's point count to a certain range. For example, an opening bid of 1 is a limit bid because it limits the point range of Opener's hand to 16, 17 or 18 points. Slightly harder to see is the fact that an opening bid of 1 is also a limit bid. This is true because we play the Strong Club, where every hand that has 17 points or more (except for the various levels of notrump) is opened automatically with 1 . So, if Opener does not bid 1 , we know he has less than 17 points. Since it is required that the Opener have at least 13 points to open the bidding with one of these four bids, we can conclude that his point range is 13-16 points- no more and no less. Contrast these limit bids with an opening bid of 1 - the Strong Club. The only requirement to open a Strong Club is that Opener have at least 17 points, but he could have many more points than that; his opening bid does not tell us the maximum number of points he holds, just the minimum. So, at the moment, the point count of his hand is unlimited.

So, with his opening bid of 1 , 1 , 1 or 2 , partner has told us that his point count range is 13-16 and, if he has opened with 1 , 1 or 2 , he has told us that the suit he bid is his best one- at least five cards long. (If Opener bids 1 , Diamonds may not actually be his best suit, but we will discuss that shortly.)

Determining Your Prospects

Before you respond to partner's opening bid, you should assess the strength of your combined hands. You will not know the total point count exactly, of course, since the Opener may have anywhere from 13 to 16, but we can at least begin with the knowledge that he has a minimum of 13. You should already know your own point count, and now we will use that figure.

Add your own point count to the minimum the Opener has shown, which is 13. Depending on the total, we can make an initial assessment of the combined hands. If the total is 26 or greater, then you know that at least a game is biddable, and you should make every effort to bid one. If the total is 23 points or less, then game is unlikely, and you should stop the bidding in the first appropriate partscore contract.

Definition: Partscore Contract A partscore (or part score) contract is any contract below game. In Notrump, the partscore contracts are 1 and 2 . In Hearts and Spades, the partscores are, respectively, 1 , 2 and 3 or 1 , 2 and 3 . In Diamonds and Clubs, the partscores are any bid in either suit below the level of 5.

Finally, if the total is 24-25, we are in a "grey area". We might have a game, but partner will have to have more than the minimum he has promised. For example, if Opener actually had 16 points, then game is possible if our own hand is worth as little as 10 points. We will have to do some additional investigation to figure out just how many points partner actually has before we commit to a game or commit to stopping in a part score.

You should remember that it takes a few extra points to make games in Clubs and Diamonds good propositions; this is because you need to take 11 of the 13 tricks to make game in these suits, as opposed to 10 tricks for Hearts and Spades, or just 9 tricks for a game in Notrump. If it becomes apparent that you will be settling on either Clubs or Diamonds as the trump suit, try not to bid game (5 of either suit) unless you have a combined total of 29 points between your two hands.

The Responses to 1 , 1 and 2

In each of these cases, partner has identified his best suit, and has suggested that it be the trump suit. The first thing Responder needs to do is to confirm or deny this assessment. If you have "support" for partner's trump suit, you should tell him that first. If you don't, but you have a 5-card-or-longer suit of your own to suggest, then you should do that next. If you cannot support your partner's suit or suggest one of your own, then you should, finally, tell him that.

     Responses Supporting Partner's Suit

First, let's talk about your response to partner's opening bid if you have support for his suit.

Definition: Support You have "support" for a suit that partner suggests should become trump if you hold either three cards in the suit, with one of them being an "honor" card (Ace, King, Queen or Jack) or any four or more cards in that suit. For example, if your partner opens 1 , then if you hold Q 8 7, A 3 2, 9 8 7 6, or anything better or longer, then you have support. But if you hold just three cards with no honor, or two cards or fewer, you do not have support.

If you have support, we must tell partner that his suggestion of a trump suit is confirmed. We do this by "raising" his bid.

Definition: A Raise A raise is a bid in the same suit as your partner last bid but at a higher level. Bidding his suit one level higher is called a "single raise", while bidding the same suit two levels higher is called a "double raise" or a "jump raise".

 

How do you know whether to make a single raise or a jump raise? If, when you added your points to partner's minimum of 13, you got a total of 26 or more (29 or more if your partner opened in Clubs), then you know that game is likely and you should simply bid it. Simply raise partner's suit to game (4 , 4 or 5 ).
 

If that total was 23 points or less, however, then even if partner held the maximum number for his bid, game is not likely, and so you should stop the bidding in the lowest part score contract possible. That, of course, is the bid partner opened with, and you may simply pass.
 

Finally, if the total is between 24-25, then you are in that "gray area". You do not know exactly how high you should be, and so we can toss the decision back to partner. But you do need to confirm the trump suit, so raise partner's bid one level. If he opened with 1 or 1 , raise him to 2 or 2 if the total is closer to 23-24, and jump raise him to 3 or 3 if the total is more like 24-25. There is some overlap here; bidding is pretty precise but not absolutely so. Depending on your bid here, partner will know your situation, and if he has the a bit more than 13 points he may raise your 2 bid to game, and if he is close to his maximum of 16, he will raise your 3 bid to game.
 

     Responses Without Support for Partner's Suit

Your response, in those cases were you do not have support for partner's suit, will depend on how many points you have.

If you have fewer than six points you must, sadly, pass. Partner has a decent suit, and should not be in much trouble, even if he has a minimum opening. In fact, if he does, then the opponents hold the majority of the points, and will likely enter the bidding to try to find their own contract.
 

If you have 6-9 points then you have some options. If you have a suit of your own, and you can bid it without raising the level of bidding, then do so. For example, if partner opens 1 and you have a biddable Spade suit, you may bid 1 . If partner opens 2 and you have a biddable Diamond, Heart or Spade suit, you can bid it at the two-level. If you do not have a suit of your own, you may bid in Notrump, again at the same level as your partner's opening bid. The one thing you may not do with only 6-9 points is raise the level of bidding. Here is an example:
 

9   A 6 4 3 2   Q 10 8   Q 8 4 3 2

Let's say that your partner has opened 1 . When you picked up your hand, you counted to 10 points (don't forget the two points for your singleton). Now that you have found that your singleton is in your partner's best suit, the value of that singleton (which would be your ability to trump after the first round) has disappeared, since your partner has suggested that Spades themselves be trump. So you should revalue your hand to only 8 points. You know that game is not there, since even if partner opened with the maximum of 16 points, you only have 24. Usually, as soon as this becomes apparent, your team should stop bidding and stay in the lowest contract possible.

But you don't want to do that here; this would leave your partner in a contract where it is entirely possible that the opponents would have more trump than you- a recipe for disaster. So you resolve to make one bid to attempt to get to a better contract. The only biddable suit you have is Hearts, but since partner has already bid Spades, you cannot bid Hearts at the one-level; you would have to raise the bidding to the two level (2 ). But as Responder you cannot raise the level of bidding with only 6-9 points (you need a minimum of 10). You have no other biddable suit. So your only alternative is to bid 1 . (Remember that Notrump outranks all four of the suits.) This bid will tell your partner that you have a fairly even hand, 6-9 points and no or poor support for his suit. Unless his hand is very unbalanced (perhaps he has another 5-card suit, or perhaps he has six or seven cards in his Spade suit) or he is at the top of his range (where he can tell that if you have eight or nine points rather than six or seven that game is possible) he will likely Pass, keeping your side in the lowest contract possible (and one that has a better chance of making than his Spade contract).

When responding to an opening bid of 1 in a suit or two clubs, you may not raise the level of bidding unless you have a minimum of 10 points.

With 10-12 points, and poor support for partner's suit, you have all the options outlined for a 6-9 point hand, but you now have the additional option of raising the level of bidding should you want to.

9   A K 4 3 2   Q 10 8   Q 8 4 3 2

For example, if we add King to the last hand, giving you 11 points, you would now bid 2 instead of 1 . It is more descriptive of your hand, and you rarely want to avoid mentioning 5-card major suits. Partner will now know you have at least 10 points, and he will be able to see that if he has 15 or 16 points, that game is again likely, and he can make some other forward-going bid. Even if he has only 13, he knows that your bid is not limited, and you may well have a good deal more than 10 points, and will again probably make at least one forward-going bid.

9   A K 4 3 2   K 10 8   A 8 4 3 2

Take a look at this hand. Once again, we have increased its value; it is now worth 14 points. Even if partner has only a minimum opening, game is pretty much assured. The only question is where. Perhaps partner can support your Heart suit. Perhaps partner can support your Club suit. Perhaps he has a second suit and it is Diamonds, which you could support. Perhaps none of these things is true, and your partner's strength is spread out. In that case, a game in Notrump might be best. The point is, you don't yet know where the game should be played, and your partner doesn't even know that you have much more than the 10 points you would promise if you were to again bid 2 with this hand (which you should do). Things are a bit murky, still, but your partner's next bid should clear things up, and give you a much better idea of where the hand is going. Since our team has enough points for a game somewhere, we can only hope that partner doesn't Pass. Fortunately, we can be assured that he will not pass- because there is another ironclad rule that comes into play here.

In an uncontested auction, if your partner makes a normal bid (not a conventional one) that names a new suit that has not yet been bid in the auction, then you are not allowed to Pass.

Well, that takes care of that problem. When we bid 2 as our response, it will be the first time in this auction that the Heart suit has been mentioned in a normal bid, and partner (the Opener) may not pass and must make another bid. That bid will clear things up and probably allow us to place the final contract.

Actually, this rule is immensely useful, for it gives each team member a sure way to get more information from his partner, without having to jump levels of bidding to get his attention (another way of indicating a strong hand). All he has to do is bid a suit that hasn't been bid yet.

There is another way to force your partner to bid again, but one that is fairly rarely used (since simply bidding a new suit as cheaply as possible will also do the trick). This method is to make a "Jump Shift" bid.

Definition: A Jump Shift A jump shift is a bid in a new suit one level higher than necessary. If partner bids 1 and you bid 2 , that is a jump shift, because bidding only 1 would have been a legal bid. The jump shift is one method that you can use to tell your partner that you not only have a biddable suit but also a very good hand.

Here are some examples. If your partner opens 1 and you respond 3 , that is not a jump-shift, since you have bid the same suit, not a new one. That bid is called a jump-raise (mentioned earlier); while it also shows a good hand, the hand will not be as good as one shown by a jump-shift. If your partner opens 1 and you respond 2 , that is not a jump-shift either, since even though you have "shifted" the suit, you have not jumped the bidding. (Since Hearts outrank Diamonds, you were forced to go up one level to bid them.) If you had bid 3 in the same auction, that would have been a jump-shift.

So when should we use the Jump Shift rather than simply bidding a new suit as cheaply as possible? The answer is that simply bidding a new suit will force your partner to bid one more time. Unless you bid yet another new suit next time around, though, partner may Pass. However, when you make a Jump Shift, you are not only forcing your partner to bid again, you are actually forcing him to continue bidding until either (1) game is reached or (2) the opponents enter the bidding and one or the other of you decide to penalize them for getting too high. (How, exactly, you do that will be discussed in a subsequent lesson.)

Think back to our idea that bridge bidding is like a conversation- one in which you should be as accurate as you can. A new suit bid, when made as cheaply as possible, simply says to partner "The suit I named is biddable, and I would like you to bid again to tell me more about your hand." The Jump Shift, however, says more: "Partner, the suit I named is biddable, but I have enough points such that even if you have the minimum number you have promised, a game is probable. I would like you to tell me more about your hand with your next bid, and I want to make sure that you continue bidding until one or the other of us makes a game bid- at which point you may, if you wish, Pass. I want you to continue to bid until game is reached, even if our opponents enter the auction- unless you or I decide to penalize them for bidding a contract that we do not think they can make." As you can see, that's a lot of information passed along with a single bid!

The Responses to An Opening Bid of 1

Generally, we use exactly the same strategies and have exactly the same options when the opening bid was 1 as when it was 1 , 1 or 2 . The one difference, however, is that an opening bid of 1 can be made on a hand that does not have a biddable Diamond suit. This is because this opening bid may be made on hands without five-card majors or a Club suit that are also unsuitable for a Notrump bid.

Because we cannot assume that Opener has a biddable Diamond suit, we must not "raise" them right away; we should look for some other bid to make, following the same point-oriented guidelines as we just discussed. The one time that you can "raise" a 1 bid to 2 is when you, yourself, have a biddable Diamond suit, or when you have only a 4-card Diamond suit but it is very strong.

9 8 2   A 3 2   A 10 8 7 6   J 2 Hand One

9 8 2   J 3 2   A K 10 8   J 9 2 Hand Two

Our partner has opened with 1 , and with both of these hands we should respond with . 2 . In Hand One, Diamonds is our only biddable suit and we have 9 points, enough to make a single raise. Partner will know that we have not counted on him for a biddable Diamond suit, and that we must have one of our own. He can use that information to either keep the contract in Diamonds (if he has good support for us) or perhaps bid Notrump, if his strength is spread across the suits other than Diamonds. In Hand Two, although our Diamond suit is not strictly biddable, it is the best bid we have. Again, it will tell partner our point range and where our strength lies. Later on, if it becomes apparent that he is relying on us for a 5-card biddable suit, we can ourselves perhaps take the contract into Notrump or elsewhere.

Reponding to an Opening Bid of 1

Responding to an opening bid of 1 is very straightfoward, because the hand your partner must have to make that bid is so strictly defined. We know he has, specifically, 16-18 points, no voids or singletons, at most one doubleton and no biddable 5-card major suit. In fact, Opener has so clearly defined his hand that he will not make another bid unless we invite him to or demand that he do so! We will be the "captain" in this auction, and we will determine the final contract. (That's not absolutely true all the time, so perhaps we should not get too drunk with power.)

First, let's talk about how high we should bid (one of the questions we must answer in any auction). All we will do is tote up our points and add them to 16- the minimum partner has promised. If the total is 26 or more, we will bid game somewhere. If the total is 24-25, we will invite our partner to bid a game if he has 18 points or a good 17 points. If the total is less than 24, we will bid a partscore. That's all there is to it.

Now for the next question: Where should we play our contract? To answer this question, we need only look at our own hand. Partner has told us already that his hand is evenly-distributed; this means he will have support for any suit we might bid. (I know that he might have one doubleton, which isn't adequate support, and I know he might have one suit with three cards and no honor, but the chances that one of these will be in our best suit is only about 20%, and if our partner realizes this, he will have ways to tell us.) So if we have a biddable suit, that's where we should play. If we don't, if our hand is as evenly-distributed as our partner's then we should keep the contract in Notrump.

Let's look at the latter case first.

Responses with Evenly-Distributed Hands

First, what to we mean by an "evenly-distributed" hand? Well, we mean the same thing as for the Notrump opening bid: no 5-card major suit, no void, no singleton and at most one doubleton. (You may wonder why biddable minor suits are not mentioned; that's because we tend to shy away from game contracts in Clubs and Diamonds since it means taking 11 tricks, rather than just 9 for a Notrump game. Sometimes bidding Club and Diamond games is best, but more often than not, long minor suits play just as well in Notrump contracts. For now, we'll ignore biddable minor suits; a bit later we can talk about how to handle long minor suits when the opening bid was in Notrump.)

If our hand is evenly-distributed (and we already know our partner's is) then it seems obvious that some number of Notrump should be our contract. So if you are responding to an opening 1 , simply add your points to 16 (the minimum the Opener has promised).

If the total is 26 or more, bid 3 .

If the total is less than 24, Pass.

If the total is 24 or 25, bid 2 . This is an "invitational bid".

Definition: Invitational Bid A bid that invites partner to raise to game if he it at the top end of whatever point range he has promised, but which asks him to Pass if he at the low end of that range.

Partner knows as well a we do that when he opens with 1 , the final placement of the contract becomes his partner's reponsibility, and that he has little more to say in the matter. He knows that if we know we have game, we will bid it. He knows that if we know for sure we don't, then we will pass. So what can he conclude when he hears us bid 2 , which is not game and certainly not a pass? He must conclude that his partner is unsure as to whether there are points enough for game. This must mean that his partner can only add to 24-25 points, assuming that he, the Opener, has only 16. So, if the Opener has 17 or 18, more than he promised, he can raise to game (he will bid 3 ).

     The Stayman Convention

Let's look at a couple of hands:

A 9 8 2   A K 2   A Q 9 3   9 2 Opener bid 1

K Q 7 4   Q 10 8   K 10 8   6 5 4 Responder raised to 3

The bidding here was quite correct. Opener had 17 points, an even hand and three of the four suits securely stopped. Responder had 10 points and an even hand. Responder added 10 to a promised 16, arrived at 26 and bid the game. What is likely to happen during the play of the hand? We don't know much about play yet, but it should be obvious that the opponents will try to take five tricks- enough to set us. And the suit they are likely to attack is Clubs, since they will see the honor cards in their own hands. If one of them happens to have a 5-card Club suit, then they will take five Club tricks off the top, and we will go set (lose more tricks than we can afford to).

But look what would have happened if the final contract had been 4 instead of 3 . Yes, the opponents could have taken two Club tricks, but then the Opener would have had no more of them, and could trump the third one. And once our team got the right to lead, we could have played out the rest of the trumps, gathering in all those held by the opponents, and then taken our Heart and Diamond tricks. Although you may not quite see it now (but good for you if you do), we would have won five tricks with Spades (one of our little spades would have trumped a Club trick), three tricks with Hearts and three tricks with Diamonds. That totals 11 tricks, one more than necessary to make our Spade game contract.

How come we couldn't have figured this out during the bidding? The answer is that while neither of us had a biddable Spade suit, each of us had four of them, and you will recall that an adequate trump suit is eight cards between the two hands. Even hands usually play better in a 4-4 trump fit than they do in Notrump. Not always, but more often than not. So it would be nice if we had a way to discover these 4-4 fits during the bidding, so, if we find one, we can play a game there, rather than in Notrump. Many years ago, a famous Bridge player, Sam Stayman, devised a way to discover these 4-4 fits, and one that was easy too use and did not confuse the bidding. His idea caught on, and today, almost everyone plays the Stayman Convention.

Remember that a "conventional" bid is one that is assigned a special meaning, quite apart from the level it mentions or the suit it specifies. The Stayman Convention uses two such "conventional" bids. Here, using the sample hands above, is how it works:

A 9 8 2   A K 2   A Q 9 3   9 2 Opener bid 1

K Q 7 4   Q 10 8   K 10 8   6 5 4 Responder used the Stayman Convention

The Stayman Convention is used by the partner of the Notrump bidder- the Responder in this case. Before simply bidding the Notrump game, he uses the convention to ask his partner the following question: "Partner, do you have a 4-card major suit?" Of course, he can't just ask him in English; that would violate the laws of the game. So, instead he makes a conventional bid: 2 . A bid of 2 , made directly over an opening bid of 1 is the Stayman Convention. (If the opening bid is 2 , the convention bid is 3 .)

When the bid comes back around to the Opener, he tells his partner whether or not he has a 4-card major suit and, if he does, which suit it is. His bids are:

	2	, which means "I do not have a 4-card major"
	2	, which means "I have a 4-card Heart suit, but not a 4-card Spade suit"
	2	, which means "I have a 4-card Spade suit. I may also have a 4-card Heart suit"

In this case Opener would have answered the Stayman question by bidding 2 . This would have told his partner that there was indeed a 4-4 trump fit, and so Responder, at his next turn, would have bid 4 instead of 3 , and the hand would be in the proper contract.

However, the astute among you might have spotted the "flaw" in the Stayman Convention. What if we had these two hands:

A 9 8 2   A K 3 2   A Q 9   9 2 Opener bid 1

Q 7 4   K Q 10 8   K 10 8   6 5 4 Responder used the Stayman Convention

Once again, Responder want to find out if there is a 4-4 fit in Hearts, so he used the Stayman Convention and bid 2 . When the bid came back around to the Opener, he used the same bids to respond to the question. In this case, since had both 4 Hearts and 4 Spades, he chose, quite correctly, the 2 response, which told his partner "I have a 4-card Spade suit. I may also have a 4-card Heart suit".

On hearing this, Responder could not assume that Opener also had a 4-card Heart suit, and so went ahead and bid 3 . He had no way of knowing that Opener had 4 cards in both major suits. But his partner, the Opener certainly did, and when the bidding came back around to him, he stopped to think. "My partner used the Stayman Convention, and the only reason he would have done so was to see if we had a 4-4 fit in one of the major suits. I told him I had a 4-card Spade suit, but he did not bid 4 . Obviously, he did not have a 4-card Spade suit, but he wouldn't have asked me the Stayman question if he didn't have a 4-card major himself. Since he doesn't have a 4-card Spade suit, he must have a 4-card Heart suit. Since I also have a 4-card Heart suit, we have a 4-4 trump fit in Hearts, and I should "correct" the contract to game in Hearts instead of Notrump." Opener then bid 4 and the team were once again in their best contract.

Never stop thinking in Bridge!

You can use Stayman over an opening 2 bid also. The conventional bid is then 3 , and all the responses are one level higher. Stayman is rarely used if the opening bid is 3 .

Reponding to Opening Bids of 2 and 3

There are no special guidelines for these responses; you can do all the same things you would do over 1 , except that the bids will all be one level higher. And when you are evaluating your total point count, remember that Opener is promising 22 points but may have as many as 24.

An opening bid of 3 is usually considered a "close-out" bid. The definition of a "close-out" bid is not precise, but, generally, they are bids that open in game or slam. The Opener, apparently, knows right off the bat how high and in what suit the hand should be played, and so he just bids the final contract. When such bids are made, the Responder will usually Pass.

However, always keep your thinking cap on. Consider these two hands:

A K Q 2   A K 3   A 10 3 2   K Q Opener bids 3

7 5   10 9 8 7 6 5 4   8 7   6 4

Opener has 25 points, an even hand, and all suits securely stopped. It is a good 3 bid, and if his partner has just a few points or a lot of diamonds, the contract should be made easily. Responder, however, can see that his hand is going to be a disappointment at Notrump. He has no high cards; there is no way to reach his hand during the play, so his partner will be severely hampered. Unless partner can take 9 tricks with top cards, the contract may likely fail. Unless, that is, the final contract was in Hearts, not Notrump. In Hearts, Responder's hand is a powerhouse- opposite a 3 opening. Since Opener must have all the suits securely stopped to make his bid, then even if he has a doubleton, and it is in Hearts, it will probably be the A-K, or K-Q or A-Q. No matter which it is, the partnership holds 9 of the 13 trump cards in the worst-case scenario, and will likely lose only one trump trick at most. All the rest of Responder's little trumps will win tricks, eventually. Most his little cards in the other suits will be taken care of by the high cards that his partner holds; there are 26 points in his partner's hand, after all.

So in this case, Responder, hearing his partner open 3 - usually a close-out bid- and looking at a point count in his own hand of exactly zilch, confidently
bids 4 !

     Transfer Bids

This is a good place to describe another useful tool, one that is used specifically when one hand contains the vast majority (or all) of the partnership's HCP.

As you may remember, the first person who bids the suit that becomes the trump suit (if any) becomes the "Declarer." He will play the hand for the partnership. His partner, the "Dummy", will lay his entire hand down on the table where the opponents can see it. If the hand with most of the high cards is the one laid down on the table, this gives the opponents something of an advantage, since they can see more of the important cards held by the team playing the contract. This will help them defend. Thus, it is usually better if the Declarer is the one with the stronger hand, since his cards remain hidden.

Let's look at a sample hand:

A K Q 6   A K Q   K J 3 2   K J Opener bids 3

7   10 9 8 7 6 5 4   8 7 5 4   6 Responder bids 4

In this case, Responder would become the Declarer, and his partner, the one with the 26-point hand, will lay all those points down on the table. When he does, the opponents will see that Diamonds should be attacked. Let us assume that the Declarer's right-hand opponent holds the A Q 10 , and that his partner, the opening leader, happens to lead a small diamond.

As soon as the Dummy comes down, Declarer's right-hand opponent knows exactly which card to play; all he has to do is to cover whatever diamond declarer plays from dummy. The defenders will thus win the first trick. Now declarer's right-hand opponent is faced with the problem of how to get the lead back into his partner's hand. Because he can see that the dummy has both the Ace of Spades and the Ace of Hearts, he knows that the only chance he has of getting back into his partner's hand is if his partner holds the Ace of Clubs, and so that is what he will lead. When the opening leader does indeed win the second trick with the Ace of Clubs, he will lead another Diamond, which will again be won by Declarer's right-hand opponent. Having won three tricks already, the Declarer's right-hand opponent will simply cash the third winning Diamond, and the contract will be defeated.

But if the opponents aren't able to see all your strength, trying to keep you from making your contract will be a lot harder. For example, let's assume that, somehow, the opening 3 bidder became the declarer at a contract of 4 . This time, the opening leader would be the person holding the A Q 10 . As you can see, if he were to lead a Diamond (other than the Ace), Declarer would win the trick in his hand, draw trumps and run his spades, easily making his contract. If he led a Club, it is true that his partner could win the trick and return a Diamond, allowing the defenders to win two Diamond tricks, but those would be the only three tricks for the defense, and Declarer's contract would be safe.

So, in hands where one person holds the lion's share of the points, the partnership should endeavor to allow the player with the points to become the declarer. But how could this be done in our case? Why would the person with the 26-point hand bid Hearts at all? He would not, of course, unless there were a way to make him do so. As it turns out, there is- the transfer bid.

Definition: Transfer Bid A convention that allows the partner of an opening Notrump bidder to tell his partner to bid either Hearts or Spades at his next turn.

Transfer bids are quite common, but you must make sure that both you and your partner agree to play them. Results may be disastrous if one of you forgets. How do they work? Any time one parner opens with some number of Notrump, then if his partner bids Diamonds, the Notrump opener must bid the same number of Hearts. Similarly, if his partner bids Hearts, the Notrump opener must bid the same number of Spades. That's it. (Transfers are not available to force the Opener to bid either Diamonds or Clubs but, as it turns out, these situations don't arise very often.)

Look again at these two hands:

A K Q 6   A K Q   K J 3 2   K J Opener bids 3

7   10 9 8 7 6 5 4   8 7 5 4   6 Responder Uses a Transfer Bid

Instead of bidding 4 , the Responder bids 4 . The Opener will then, regardless of what his hand looks like, bid 4 . The person holding the 26 points will then become the first person to bid Hearts, and will thus become the Declarer, and those 26 points will be hidden from the defenders. The contract will become ironclad, no matter what the defenders do.

Transfers, if they are played, work over opening bids of 1 and 2 as well, except that the level is lower.

Not everyone plays transfer bids, and it is considered polite to tell your opponents that you are doing so- either before you start playing or, even better, when such a bid is made. For example, if you are playing transfers and you open 1 and your partner bids 2 , then before your right-hand opponent makes his bid, tell both your opponents that the 2 bid is a transfer. (If they don't know what transfer bids are, you can tell them that "a transfer simply requires me to bid the next higher suit at the same level".) Then, when it becomes your turn to bid, bid 2 . Here is an example:

Opener 1 (I have an even hand and 16-18 points) 2 (OK, but why?)   4 (I have 18 points, so I did what you asked)

Responder 2 (Partner, please bid spades) 3 (I have lots of them. If you have 17-18 points, please bid game) Pass (Fine. We are where we should be)

Reponding When Your Partner Has Made a Pre-emptive Bid

Recall that partner may occasionally open the bidding with a pre-emptive bid, a bid not designed to investigate a contract for your side, but rather one that makes it difficult for the opponents to find their own best contract. These pre-emptive bids are all made on long, semi-strong suits, and all of them deny actual opening count (13 points). The most common pre-emptive bids are 2 and 2 , 3 of any suit except Notrump, and 4 and 4 . The higher the level of the pre-empt, the longer your partner's suit will be, and the greater the percentage of whatever points he does have are likely to be in that suit.

The general rule for bidding after your partner has opened with a pre-emptive bid is: don't. Your partner is not interested in bidding to a contract and, even if he was, he is telling you that the only suit that could be trump would be the one he bid.

Although you will rarely respond, there are two cases in which you would consider doing so. In both cases, you will be raising the bid level of the suit in which the Opener pre-empted.

     Responding With a Weak Hand

The only weak (less than 13-point) hand on which you might raise your partner's pre-empt is one in which you actually have good support for your partner's suit.

When your partner's hand is weak, it is likely that the opponent who bids after him will do so; after all, the likelihood is that the opponents hold significant points. As you will see later, the two most common bids the opponent might make are "Double" and a cue-bid of your partner's suit.

Definition: Cue Bid A bid in a suit that the opponents have bid. If your right-hand opponent opens 1 and you bid 2 , that is a cue-bid. Cue bids do not apply over conventional bids. A cue bid shows a very good hand, with either the Ace or a void in the suit being cue-bid. If the bidder who comes after the cue-bidder passes, then the cue-bidder's Partner must bid.

"Double", a bid we will discuss in the lessons on Competitive Bidding, is used by an opponent of the opening bidder to indicate to his partner that he has a good hand with shortness in the suit doubled, and strongly requests that the doubler's partner bid.

If your right-hand opponent makes either of these bids, then you know that they have the preponderance of the points and, left alone, will ignore the pre-empt and bid carefully with the bidding room they have left to find their best contract. Partner has already made this harder with his pre-empt; you can make it harder still by raising the pre-empt. Once again, you are not trying to play the contract yourself, but rather trying to take away even more of the opponent's bidding room, reducing the possibility that they will find the right game or slam. If partner opens 2 , and your right-hand opponent cue bids 3 , you may bid 4 with something like:

A 2   J 8 6 4   8 7 6 5   J 6 2

If partner opens 2 , and your right-hand opponent doubles, you can bid 3 with something like:

3 2   J 8 6 4   K 7 5   9 8 6 2

     Responding With a Strong Hand (16+ points)

The other time that Responder can (and should) bid over his partner's pre-empt is if Responder has a strong hand and thinks that game is probable; of course, the trump suit will be the one Opener bid. You know your partner has less than opening count but a very long suit. If you can help take care of his losing cards outside the trump suit, then you may well have a game. So if the opponent after your partner passes (as he is likely to do if you have almost half the points in the deck), then with 17 or more points and support for your partner's suit (Qx, Jxx, xxxx or better- a little less than the "support" we talked about earlier in this lesson), then raise your partner's pre-empt one level with 16-17 points, and all the way to game with 18 points or more.

Here are two sample hands to illustrate a proper raise of your partner's pre-emptive bid:

K Q 10 9 8 7   7 6 5   A 10 3   9 Partner bids 2

J 6 5   A Q 10 6 5   K 2   K Q J You?

Partner has opened with a good pre-empt, and the next opponent has passed. You should bid 3 . This tells partner that you have about 16 points and support for his suit. If he is at the top of the range for his pre-empt (10-12 HCP) he can raise to game.

Let's strengthen Responder's hand to 18 points:

K Q 10 9 8 7   7 6 5   A 10 3   9 Partner bids 2

J 6 5   A Q 10 6 5   K 2   A K 4 You?

With this many points, game is almost sure, so don't run the risk that if you invite your partner to bid it that he will shy away. Bid it yourself. Bid 4 .

Responding to an Opening Bid That Has Been Doubled

Although this lesson has continued to assume that the opponents don't bid, it is appropriate here to discuss one bid they might make that gives you opportunities you would not have had if they had not bid.

If your partner opens with one of a suit or 2 , your right-hand opponent may call "Double". You will learn in a later lesson that this conventional bid shows an opening hand with shortness in your partner's suit. It asks your left-hand opponent to bid his best suit.

If your right-hand opponent doubles, and you have ten points or more you must bid "Redouble", a bid which simply tells your partner that you have that many points. (Your partner will now know that your side holds the majority of the points, and can take whatever action seems appropriate.)

With less than ten points, you can still bid. You can raise your partner's suit or bid a suit of your own. Either way, partner will know that even though you bid, you have less than ten points since you did not Redouble.

	Opener's Rebid
	The Opening Bid
	Index of Lessons